Reading on Liminal Spaces

What liminal spaces mean, where the idea comes from, how it differs from similar terms, and real examples in Japan. Start with whatever catches your eye.

The underground passage to the Keiyo Line at Tokyo Station, with moving walkways stretching into the distance Games・2026-09-28 7 Games Where You Can Walk Through Liminal Spaces: The Exit 8, Pools, Escape the Backrooms and More Seven games that let you walk through liminal spaces and the Backrooms: The Exit 8, Platform 8, Pools, Escape the Backrooms, Dreamcore, Anemoiapolis and The Backrooms 1998. Developers, release dates, platforms, how scary they are, language support, and real places that feel like them.
A drained indoor swimming pool with white tiles and ceiling lights Games What Is the Game Pools? The Poolrooms Game, and Real Places That Feel Like Pools The Site of Reversible Destiny against the mountains, with paths and structures spread across a bowl-shaped terrain Real Spots Liminal Spaces in Shizuoka and Tokai: 8 Real Places, From Escalators of Light to a Showa-Era Station The underground space of the Oya History Museum, with stone walls stretching on under dim lights Real Spots Liminal Spaces in North Kanto: 9 Real Places, From an Underground Quarry to the Top Floors of Prefectural Offices Naminoue Beach on an empty morning, with an elevated bridge and the rock of Naminoue Shrine in the distance Real Spots Liminal Spaces in Okinawa: 7 Real Places, From a Beach Under an Elevated Road to Japan's Southernmost Arcade The end of the Kiyotsu Gorge Tunnel, where the gorge is reflected on a floor covered with water Real Spots Liminal Spaces in Hokuriku and Koshinetsu: 8 Real Places, From a Meiji-Era Railway Tunnel to a Library of Round Windows The ground-floor lobby of the Kagawa Prefectural Office East Building, with tiled murals and wooden benches Real Spots Liminal Spaces in Chugoku and Shikoku: 9 Real Places, From Kenzo Tange's Prefectural Office to Abandoned Railway Lines The Aomori Museum of Art, a white box-like building beyond a lawn Real Spots Liminal Spaces in Tohoku: 8 Real Places, From a Ferry That Will Never Sail to a White Art Museum The Kanmon Tunnel pedestrian walkway, a fluorescent-lit corridor running straight into the distance Real Spots Liminal Spaces in Kyushu: 9 Real Places, From an Undersea Pedestrian Tunnel to a Showa-Era Steel Tower The concrete arches of the Taushubetsu River Bridge standing on the exposed bed of Lake Nukabira Real Spots Liminal Spaces in Hokkaido: 9 Real Places, From Sapporo's Underground Walkways to a Bridge That Sinks Into a Lake The corridor of Fushimi Underground Mall, with a green ceiling and a checkered floor stretching into the distance Real Spots Liminal Spaces in Nagoya: 8 Real Places, From Underground Malls to Showa-Era Public Buildings The River Mall on Rokko Island, with stone-pillar fountains and the elevated Rokko Liner Real Spots Where to Photograph Liminal Spaces in Kansai: Real Spots in Osaka, Hyogo, Nara and Shiga An empty station waiting room Psychology Is the Backrooms Movie Scary? A Spoiler-Free Guide to What Kind of Fear It Uses A shopping street with its shutters down Real Spots Where to Go in Tokyo After Watching the Backrooms Movie The 2002 photograph that became the image of Level 0 Basics What Are the Backrooms Levels? From Level 0 to The End — and Why There Is No Official Canon The abandoned Azure indoor swimming pool in Pripyat Basics What Are the Poolrooms? Where the Blue-Tiled Water Spaces Came From The photograph posted to 4chan in 2019 that created the Backrooms Examples Where Was the Original Backrooms Photo Taken? The Real Building, Identified in 2024 An empty station platform Comparisons Backrooms vs Exit 8: Two Endless Spaces That Work in Opposite Ways An empty playground History Who Is Kane Pixels? From a Post at Sixteen to Directing for A24 A row of old television sets Basics What Does Noclip Mean? How a Game Dev Term Came to Describe the Back of Reality The second surviving original Backrooms source photo, taken in 2002 History Do You Need to Do Homework Before Watching Backrooms? The Legend, the YouTube Series, and the Director An empty underground tunnel that seems to stretch on forever Real Spots Is "Exit 8" Real? Looking for Actual Places With the Same Eerie Vibe The original 2002 photograph that inspired the Backrooms Real Spots Do the Backrooms Exist in Japan? Looking for Places With That "Yellow Room" Feeling A single passerby walking down a quiet residential lane Real Spots Not a Haunted Spot, Just Eerie: How to Find "Strangely Unsettling" Places An aerial view of Hashima (Gunkanjima), Japan's famous "Battleship Island" of ruins Real Spots Finding Abandoned Buildings on a Map: Japan's Ruins, Without the Haunted-House Angle An empty corridor with no sign of use Basics What Is a Liminal Space? Meaning, Origin, and Real-World Examples The abandoned grounds of Nara Dreamland Liminal Spaces in Japan Liminal Spaces in Japan: What Makes Them Different The original 2002 photograph that inspired the Backrooms Comparisons Liminal Space vs. the Backrooms: What's the Difference? Playground equipment with no one around Comparisons Liminal Space vs. Dreamcore: What's the Difference? An empty parking garage under uniform lighting Psychology Why Do Liminal Spaces Feel Scary or Unsettling? A deserted San Francisco street during the 2020 lockdowns History How Liminal Spaces Became a Trend: A Brief History A symmetrically framed spiral staircase Practical Guide How to Find and Photograph Liminal Spaces The closed Spreepark amusement park in Berlin Examples Famous Liminal Spaces from Around the World